Save Hundreds! The Ultimate DIY Track Saw 2 0

[Music] hey guys welcome to Franklin Woodworks why do you need a track saw well it makes straight cuts foolproof simple circular saw guides leave the possibility of wandering off line or tilting the saw both of which means a less than perfect cut so what is out there well there's the Festool track coming in at 355 dollars oh but you have to have the saw that goes with it so add five hundred and ninety bucks Dewalt has one for 488 but it doesn't look like you can cut a full length of plywood with it Makita haz14 419 but its only 55 inches long same for the grizzly at 308 bucks the cheapest is made by Wynn which includes the saw and two tracks at 27 inches each I'll let you do the math on that probably the most practical option is the Craig which allows you to use your own saw but limits you to 48 inches for a full 96 inch piece of plywood you'll have to use the Craig rip cut which has its own set of problems one of my most successful projects ever was my DIY track saw that I made for under $20 not including the saw that video was poorly done and a lot of folks complained that the music was too loud so I want to improve not only improve the video but also improved the saw guide the one that I made in the video is fantastic and is one of the most used items in my shop but it has some limitations this is my 48 inch version but I also made a 96 inch version the same way I used half inch MDF and when you add the guide plus the base plate attached to the saw you lose an inch on the maximum cutting depth of the saw not such a big deal when I was using a seven and a quarter inch corded circular saw but a slightly bigger deal when I switched to a six and a half inch cordless saw and because of the half inch offset of the base plate I couldn't really use the saw without the track and unless I took off the base plate which is an additional time consuming step I want to avoid I'm gonna address all of that by remaking the track using quarter inch MDF and making the base plate a little wider I start out by cutting to 10 inch wide pieces of the MDF one will be used for the base of the track the other will be used to make the base plate for the saw and the dovetailed guides the base plate slides in once I've got both pieces cut I changed the angle of the blade on my table salt to 20 degrees and cut both outside edges of one of the pieces I want the base plate for the saw to be four inches wide so I'll move my table saw fence to four inches and run the MDF back through so that the angle is opposite from the angle on the edge forming a dovetail at the miter saw I cut that piece to a length of 16 inches then I set my table saw blade back to 90 and ripped the other full-length piece in half the resulting two pieces will be the runners that will lock the base plate of the saw in position eliminating the possibility of wandering off line or tilting the saw and making your cut something other than 90 degrees to start building the track I clamped one of the beveled strips to the base piece and clamping it because I'm going to use it as a guide to attach the other beveled piece then I lay down a very small strip of glue on both the base and the dovetail strip I use very little glue because I can't afford to have any glue squeeze out onto the dovetail attack the strip into place using the shortest pin nails I have making sure the dovetail is oriented in the correct direction because the pin nails were a little too long I cut the nails off on the backside using a grinder making sure the surface is smooth you don't want nails digging into your plywood and marring the surface and I repeat the same process for the other side of the dovetail using the 16 inch base plate as a guide as a nail and the grinder gets used again to clean things up now that it's time to attach the base plate to the saw I needed a way to reference the squareness of the plate to the saw I did this by lowering the blade of my table saw and lightly scoring the top of the plate this gave me a straight square line to reference then I place the salt on the plate and mark the locations of the holes in the base plate keep in mind that the base plate is flush with the rear of the sole so the base plate sticks out in the front this will ensure that the saw is stabilized in the dovetail before you begin the cut I pre-drilled the marked locations and attach the saw using the shortest screws I had keep in mind that you may have to add your own holes to the base plate and I had to use the grinder again to make sure the screws were flush on the bottom a little paste wax on the guide and the base plate of the saw protects the MDF from moisture and keeps things sliding smoothly now all I have to do is clamp down the guide and run the saw through it to create the zero clearance cut line to use the guide just make your marks on your workpiece line up the edge of the guide right to the mark and clamp it in place did i improve the design maybe one drawback that was immediately apparent was that the guide was pretty flexible that means your workpiece will have to be well supported for the guide to work smoothly I think maybe a good compromise would be to use half inch MDF for the base of the guide and a quarter inch MDF for the saw base plate and the dovetail guides that way you get some added rigidity while the saw remains usable without the guide while the base plate is still attached anyway I think the design is a good idea and you can choose your own materials I just chose the cheapest I could find with the amount of MDF I used I got about seven dollars in this build and the beauty of it is you can use whatever circular saw you have on hand one thing's for sure you don't need to spend nine hundred or more dollars just to cut a straight line or even a hundred and thirty one dollars for that matter if you feel so inclined please give this video a thumbs up and I'd appreciate it if you'd subscribe to my channel I hope this gives you some ideas for your shop thanks for watching and there you go

Channel: FranklinWoodWorks

Views: 489,251

Rating: 4.9174714 out of 5

Keywords: southern woodworkers, DIY, track saw, circular saw, guide, dewalt, festool, wen, triton, makita, grizzly, MDF, Cheap, shop tools, shop project, Franklin Woodworks, plywood, ryobi, cordless circular saw

Id: t7hvA7vWJIY

Length: 7min 39sec (459 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 01 2018